“Lives at risk” says MP, as he urges Yorkshire Ambulance Service to reconsider changes to first aid training.
Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, is concerned that changes to local first aid training may put lives at risk, especially in rural areas.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service has reduced Community First Responders training from monthly two-hour sessions to bi-monthly training sessions.
Community First Responders are unpaid volunteers who are trained to provide life-saving aid before an ambulance crew arrives. These volunteers are first on the scene and provide emergency care to patients in the first vital minutes of a medical incident.
Graham Stuart MP said: “The Yorkshire Ambulance Service is quite right to look for efficiencies and must do everything possible to deliver more for less, but I urge the trust to look again at the impact of these training reductions.
“In many rural areas where the response time for ambulance services can be significantly longer, it is the excellent work of Community First Responders that saves lives.
“These volunteers are dedicated people who do a fantastic job for the whole community and we should be utilising their services and encouraging them to continue with the generous donation of their time.”
Graham added: “The reduction in training has understandably left many of these volunteers disillusioned and it is a shame that the number of volunteers across the East Riding has been dwindling as a result.
“At a time when we need to encourage more people to volunteer and invest time in their local community, this could prove to be a backward step.”